In an off-election year, most of the ballots in Michigan’s special elections Tuesday contained requests from schools to renew or create new property tax money for their operations or capital purchases. Voters narrowly approved such a request from Dowagiac Union schools, but it wasn’t without some confusion.
Local TV stations Tuesday night were reporting Dowagiac schools’ ballot item passed, and the school district thanked voters for their support on Facebook and their website. But vote totals posted Tuesday night and Wednesday morning by the Cass, Berrien and Van Buren county clerks – since the school district serves parts of three counties – showed that the proposal didn’t pass. It was defeated by 7 votes, with 1,217 votes for it and 1,210 votes against.
Because of the discrepancy, WVPE held off on reporting on the matter Wednesday. But late in the day Cass County Clerk Monica McMichael got back to WVPE and said the vote totals initially posted online by the clerks were wrong. She said it was discovered Wednesday morning that data from one precinct did not upload correctly to the county’s vote tabulating software.
McMichael says the unofficial results now show the proposal passed by 14 votes out of 2,568 cast. Although they happened to be correct, it was unclear what the TV stations and school district based their calls on. Superintendent Greg Blomgren did not reply to our interview request.
